2018 MARINE QUALITY BULLETIN Aegean Sea DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT, PERMIT AND INSPECTION CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 3 2 DEFINITIONS ............................................................................................................................... 4 3 GENERAL INFORMATION....................................................................................................... 6 3.1 The Aegean Sea Coastal Water Body (Water Management Unit) .................................... 6 3.2 Information on the monitoring stations and campaigns in the Aegean Sea ..................... 7 4 EUTROPHICATION STATUS OF THE AEGEAN SEA ........................................................ 9 4.1 Variability of Nutrients ......................................................................................................... 9 4.2 Chlorophyll-a levels ............................................................................................................. 12 4.3 Dissolved Oxygen Levels ..................................................................................................... 13 4.4 Secchi Disk Depth ................................................................................................................ 14 5 TRIX INDEX ASSESSMENT .................................................................................................... 15 6 GENERAL ASSESSMENT ........................................................................................................ 15 Ecological Quality Status of Coastal Water Bodies ...................................................................... 15 7 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................. 17 7.1 Appendix-1: Information on the stations in 2017 ............................................................ 17 7.2 Appendix-2: Sampling Methods ......................................................................................... 19 7.3 Appendix-3: Measurement and Analysis Methods ........................................................... 19 8 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 20 DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT, PERMIT AND INSPECTION 1 Marine Quality Bulletin is published as part of the Official Statistics Program (OSP). LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 The Aegean Sea Coastal Water Bodies (Water Management Units) (DeKoS, 2014) ........... 7 Figure 3.2 Map of the monitoring stations in the Aegean Sea in the summer of 2017 .......................... 8 Figure 4.1 Comparison of the 2014-2017 nutrients data of the surface layer (0-10m average) of the Aegean Sea CWBs ................................................................................................................................ 10 Figure 4.2 Comparison of the 2014-2017 physical properties and the nutrient ratios of the surface layer (0-10m average) of the Aegean Sea CWBs ........................................................................................... 11 Figure 4.3 Comparison of the 2014-2017 surface layer (0-10m average) chlorophyll-a concentrations. of the Aegean Sea CWBs ...................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 4.4 Dissolved oxygen profiles in the 2017 summer samplings of all the stations in the Aegean Sea ......................................................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 4.5 Comparison of the 2014-2017 Secchi disk data obtained in the Aegean Sea CWBs .......... 14 Figure 5.1 2014-2017 TRIX values of the CWBs in the Aegean Sea ................................................... 15 Figure 6.1 Coastal water bodies ecological quality assessment (2016)................................................. 16 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 TRIX Values and Class Definitions ...................................................................................... 5 Table 3.1 Information about the Monitoring Stations in the Aegean Sea .............................................. 6 Table 3.2 The Aegean Sea Coastal Water Bodies (Water Management Units) .................................... 6 2 Marine Quality Bulletin is published as part of the Official Statistics Program (OSP). 1 INTRODUCTION Ministry of Environment and Urbanization has been conducting pollution and quality monitoring studies in all seas of Turkey -the Black Sea, the Marmara Sea and Straits, the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea- since the 2000s under the Regional Sea Conventions signed by Turkey (Barcelona and Bucharest Conventions) and national and international legislation. Since 2011, the marine monitoring studies have been carried out on the basis of ecosystem-based management approach under the “Integrated Marine Pollution Monitoring Program”. Through the monitoring program, it is aimed to establish a scientific background for the determination of national marine and coastal management policies and strategies for the Turkish seas; where comprehensive assessment reports are prepared about the findings based on the historical and up-to-date data. The “Integrated Marine Pollution Monitoring Program” conducted by the Ministry has been operated in 3-year periods since 2014 under the coordination of TÜBİTAK-Marmara Research Center with the cooperation and contributions of many acknowledged specialists and scientists from the universities and research institutions. In the framework of the monitoring program; the physicochemical properties of the water column, ecological status indicators, state of pollution, radioactivity levels, marine litter accumulated at the coasts and the seas, the seafloor and water column biodiversity/habitats, contaminant levels in the target species of economic value are monitored. With these results, quality classifications have been made for assessing the status of coastal water bodies and marine areas. Also, multi-variable data sets have been created to determine and follow up the definitions and targets of “good environmental status” for our seas. The monitoring activities in all Turkish seas -Black Sea, Marmara Sea and the Straits, the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea- consist of the following components. Monitoring of biodiversity and ecological quality (including alien species), Monitoring of eutrophication, Monitoring of pollutant levels and their trends as well as in terms of human consumption, Monitoring of marine litter in sediments, water and at the coasts. The Aegean Sea - Marine Quality Bulletin-2017 contains the eutrophication component assessments for the 2014-2017 period and ecological quality status assessment for the year 2016. 3 Marine Quality Bulletin is published as part of the Official Statistics Program (OSP). 2 DEFINITIONS CTD: Conductivity and Temperature measurements of sea water relative to Depth (In situ measurements). Ecological Status: The structural and functional quality of aquatic ecosystems. According to the Water Framework Directive, coastal waters are assessed with 3 biological quality elements (phytoplankton, zoobenthos and macro algae) and in 5 quality classes (high/good/moderate/poor/bad). Monitoring of Eutrophication: Relevant indicators like nutrient levels and their temporal changes, dissolved oxygen levels at the bottom and/or intermediate layer depths and their temporal changes, chlorophyll-a levels in euphotic water column, light penetration, prevalence and distribution of opportunistic macroalgae are monitored at the seafloor and in the water column. The assessments are made with integrated data on pressures and impacts. Secchi Disk Depth (SDD): It is an indicator of light transmittance in the marine environment which is commonly used in eutrophication assessments owing to both the ease of measurement and the possibility of comparison with historical data. The Secchi disk depth decreases when the particulate matter in water column increases, however, it increases when the light transmittance increases. Water Management Unit (Coastal Water Body, CWB): Identifies a surface water part characterized by significant physical, hydro-morphological, ecological properties and by pressure analyses. It is the smallest coastal water management unit handled by the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). Marine Assessment Unit (MAU): Marine areas defined for monitoring as specified in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC); and initially was set with DeKoS Project which are still subject to official confirmation. TRIX Index: Trophic Index (TRIX) is a scale for the trophic status (eutrophication) classification of coastal surface waters. It is a logarithmic calculation method including such parameters as the Total Phosphorus (TP) and Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen (DIN) which are among nutrients; Chlorophyll-a (Chl- a) which is a quantitative indicator of planktonic biomass; and aDO% (oxygen saturation deviation from 100%DO) which is an indicator of photosynthesis intensity. TRIX index (Vollenweider et al. 1998; Bendoricchio et al. 2005) is calculated with the following formula; TRIX = (Log10[Chl-a x aDO% x TIN x TP] + k) / m Chl-a: Chlorophyll-a concentration (µg/L), aDO%: Absolute deviation from the oxygen saturation value: I 100-DO% I DIN: Dissolved